299 Henry Street

Five floors above a cellar on a 25-foot lot, the building occupying roughly 25 by 54 feet of a 92.5-foot-deep parcel — which means a real rear yard behind, and rear-facing apartments that look at gardens rather than a wall.

Schedule A is the clearest description of the stock that exists. Ten apartments: one three-bedroom with a garden (60 shares, the largest allocation), one one-bedroom with a terrace (41 shares, the smallest), and eight one-bedroom apartments at 54 to 56 shares each — a nearly uniform building with an exception at either end. Within the one-bedroom core, floor and renovation state are effectively the only variables, which makes in-building comparables unusually predictive; the two outliers comp against nothing else here.

The envelope is brick over a nineteenth-century structure, and its most consequential feature is the plumbing. Under the corporation's alteration agreement, a shareholder who removes walls and exposes pipes must replace all branch lines back to the risers, with the cooperative replacing any riser found in poor condition. That is a candid acknowledgement of an ageing system and a well-drafted response — it turns individual renovations into building-wide capital improvement — but it adds real cost to any gut renovation. Budget for it. Exterior work runs through Landmarks; on a house that already carries a modern brick front, the Commission's interest will focus on windows and on any proposal to restore rather than alter further.

299 Henry Apartment Corp. has run the building since the 1986 closing, with Adventure Properties, Inc. as managing agent per the corporation's own alteration agreement. The Roebling Research Library holds the plan, the first three amendments, the lease, by-laws, house rules, alteration agreement and financials from the late 1990s forward.

The financial statements reviewed, held from the late 1990s forward, describe their respective reporting periods; the latest period must be confirmed before treating these figures as current: real estate taxes run near half of total operating cost, management fees and superintendent services are contracted at modest fixed amounts, and utilities, water and sewer, insurance and professional fees fill the remainder. Income is maintenance plus small laundry receipts, occasional sublet fees, and periodic special assessments — one of which appears at $12,500 in a recent statement, roughly a sixth of that year's maintenance line. The reviewed statements show mortgage amortization; obtain the current outstanding balance and terms. Statements are prepared on a review rather than audit basis, and the corporation has at times carried a "due to shareholders" balance indicating shareholder advances; ask about both, and request the assessment history and reserve balance alongside the current budget. The recurring capital items are façade maintenance, the roof, the boiler, and the plumbing risers the alteration agreement already flags.

Subletting: Board consent or, if refused, holders of at least 65 percent of shares under the proprietary lease. The managing agent may charge a processing fee, and sublet fee income appears in the statements. Term limits and surcharge levels are not documented — confirm with the board.

Permitted use: Residential plus professional or semi-professional use consistent with zoning and applicable law. For a self-employed buyer this is a real and under-appreciated feature.

Alterations: Board approval and a signed agreement, with a $1,000 security deposit, contractor liability and property-damage cover of $1,000,000 naming the cooperative and managing agent as additional insureds, workers' compensation, licenses and permits, and indemnification from both shareholder and contractor. Work runs weekdays 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., noisy work not before 9:00 a.m. The riser-replacement requirement applies to any work exposing plumbing.

Pets: Written permission of the corporation, revocable at will — the standard prewar form. The lease also carries the conversion-era escape clause permitting surrender of the shares without compensation on a stated anniversary date.

Flip tax, financing minimums, pied-à-terre, washer-dryer: Not documented in the plan, amendments, lease or house rules reviewed.

Recent sales

Recent transfers at this building, from The Roebling Research Library. Prices are the transfer amounts recorded with the NYC Department of Finance; apartment-level detail is checked against the building’s own file in The Roebling Research Library before publishing.

Market read. $/sf is measured on the latest sales with reliable square footage (2011): a median $598/sf (recorded) across 1 sale. The building has traded as recently as 2025. Median listing discount 0.9% from the last ask — a recurring negotiation gap worth pricing into any offer or listing strategy.

Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 3-00263-0007). Apartment-level facts (line, condition, asking-price context) curated and cross-verified in The Roebling Research Library. Not all transactions cross-verify with ACRIS records — sponsor and LLC purchases sometimes record at stipulated values rather than market price.

The façade is not original. The LPC's own record says the details and stoop were removed and a modern brick front added. Evaluate the plan, light and block against matched sales before attributing a price adjustment to the altered façade.

Read the alteration agreement before planning a renovation. Exposing plumbing triggers replacement of branch lines back to the risers. Good policy, real money.

Ask for the assessment history. A ten-unit corporation with a modest reserve funds capital work through assessments; the decade-long pattern tells you more than any single budget.

Confirm the share allocation. The plan's cover page and Schedule A disagree on the total. Verify the apartment's shares against the stock ledger.

Sell the block and the plan. Henry Street between State and Joralemon, a Federal house next door and Anglo-Italianate brownstones two doors down, a rear yard, and an efficient apartment layout.

Use the building's own comparables. Eight nearly identical one-bedrooms means the last in-building sale is a defensible anchor. Few small Heights co-ops can say that.

Document the capital work. A clear record of façade, roof, boiler and riser work answers the question buyers are actually asking about reserves.

Flag the professional-use permission. The lease allows professional and semi-professional use consistent with zoning — a differentiator most competing listings cannot claim.

If you're considering 299 Henry Street, also evaluate:

• 301 Henry Street — the 1833 Federal house next door at the State Street corner, itself stripped of details with a fourth story added; the closest possible comparable
• 15 Cranberry Street — the same sponsor's earlier 1984 conversion, the same playbook at the other end of the district
• 282 Henry Street — small Henry Street cooperative peer across the street
• 245 Henry Street — postwar apartment-house co-op north of Joralemon, for services against row-house scale
• 153 Henry Street — mid-size prewar Henry Street co-op
• 161 Henry Street — prewar Henry Street co-op peer
• 277 Hicks Street — small co-op one block west in the same southern Heights pocket
• 151 Joralemon Street — 1913 apartment house around the corner
• 199 State Street (The Lookout Hill Condominium) — the condominium alternative on State Street, for buyers who want a deed rather than shares